Are You Blogging?

Are you a portrait photographer?  Are you blogging?

Yes and No?

Um, what are you waiting for!???

If you are a portrait photographer and you are not currently blogging and posting sneak peeks to your customers you are losing out on a major marketing opportunity.  This is probably doubly true if you are a children's portrait photographer.  Parents LOVE to share pictures of their kids and you get the credit - what could be better?!

I'll give you an example.  Earlier this week I had a great session with an adorable little 1 year old girl.  We had fun, she was cute, and the light was nice.  I posted her sneak peek on my blog and sent the link to mom.

Mom posted the link on an online community that she is a member of and here's the resulting traffic spike:

So while I normally have about 50 visitors a day to my photography blog I had almost 200 that day!  This is 100 extra people looking at my work and because it is a local community they are possible customers.  I also had a spike in new members signing up for my mailing list on that day so I'm sure it is not a coincidence.  And, this particular mom found me through another mom that posted on the same community board HER daughter's pictures.

There is nothing as valuable as word of mouth advertising.  Think about what it would cost you to market to 100 new people through traditional means.  And not just 100 new people, but 100 targeted people that are similar to others in your client base?  Blogging is so inexpensive and yes, there is the time factor but you are going to proof those pictures anyway so why not take a few of them while they are fresh in your mind and jot down a few thoughts about the session on a blog post.  ADVERTISING!  And, it will wet your clients appetite to see the rest of their pictures.

Not sure how to get started?  Here are some of my previous posts to lead you on:

• Blogger vs Typepad (for your blogging platform)
• Setting up Feedburner (for subscriber stats on your blog)
• Setting up Google Analytics (for traffic stats on your blog)
• Creating Your Blog: Step 1
• Creating Your Blog: Step 2

My business blog is actually due for a MAJOR overhaul.  I'd like to go to a blogsite where I just have one website instead of a website and a blog.  And, I'm looking for a fresh look and a blog designed for the wider pictures.  So that is something on my plate for the new year. 

There are some companies out there that are offering custom blog designs too if you are not a do-it-yourself kind of person (or don't have the time):

• Flosites (they created Lena Hyde's blog)
• Into the Darkroom (which, by the way, did the awesome blog design for Chenin Boutwell)
• Infinet Design (who did Audrey Woulard, Laura Novak, and Tamara Lackey's blogs)

And in case you are wondering how it compares....I get about 200-300 visitors a day to THIS blog and I also have 1200 subscribers that read it through an RSS feed.  So, I get WAY more traffic but that makes sense to me since I'm not a big name photographer, just a big name sharer. LOL

Comments

[Brenda Landrum]

Hi! You were talking about finding a new blog design and I have a tip for you. I recently bought a blog template for photographers from ProPhoto. Their URL is: http://www.professionalphotographertheme.com/ I customized it into a blogsite for myself. It's not as fancy as the custom designs like Jessica Claire but it works great for me. I'm still learning and making it better but it's not to shabby if you ask me. Ha!

[Jessica]

Wow Brenda! That is a great find. Thanks for sharing!!!

[Samantha Bender]

I second the ProPhoto vote! I am actually beta testing a FANTASTIC new theme that is completely customizeable...and I know NOTHING about web design...it's wonderful. Check out my blog at www.sbphotoblog.com to see what I've done with my blog after only 2 days of working with this sweet new theme.

[Marco Togni]

Nice post! I think you will have some works from that people who visited you. Tell us if you will get some works. ;-)
see you

[aviva]

Yes, ProPhoto is great - big photos too, much more economical.

Question: How do you track the amount of folks who have you in an RSS feed? I use Google Analytics already but don't think I can see that stat. Thanks for the blog - love this!

[Jessica]

Hi Aviva, I just use the feedburner site to manage the RSS subscribers. http://www.feedburner.com

[MacNessa]

Oh that's good to know - I'm usually afraid to post pictures of the kids in case the parents have privacy issues. I suppose I could password protect them, and then email the mom with the link and the password and leave it up to her whether or not she gives it out?

Good to know some people are okay with it!

[aviva]

Thanks, Jessica!

[Mark]

I just want to say I've been following your blog for a while now and have learned a ton about the photography business from your sharing. I'm in the process of switching careers from the IT world to become a pro-photographer. It's a very challenging process and blogs like yours really help. In fact, I am in the process of creating a similar blog on my path to becoming pro. Keep up the awesome work and hope to do more networking with you and other amazing photographers in the future.

-mark

[Julie lackey]

Hi
Is is Aviva. My friend Kelly just forwarded me your blog. I can't wait until tomorrow to sit down and go back through your old posts. Thank you so much for the wonderful knowledge and info you share with others. What a blessing and a joy!

Julie

[Brenda Landrum]

I have another tip! I too use Google Analytics but didn't always like that I couldn't see my RSS Feed stats. I found a great WordPress Plugin called StatPress. To find it browse to: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/statpress/ This is FREE!!! It tracks my visitors, pageviews, and feeds! Gives me tons of information about what my visitors do and where they come from. I can also "SPY" on each visitor by tracking them through their IP address and see what pages they hit during their visit. Very cool! What I like best is that it's all right in my WordPress Dashboard! Check it out!